THE LEFT EXISTS ONLY TO AMUSE US:

An Election Just Like Any Other (David Harsanyi, 8/19/08, Real Clear Politics)

At some point, though, we need to hear where candidates stand on policy. This is where Obama struggles. Politics is about divisions.

The first sign of trouble was energy. As soon as gas prices approached $4 a gallon, Republicans, sensing real anger, demanded more domestic energy production. Democrats found themselves in a dangerous spot; as sentinels of Earth's well-being, they were unwilling to cede that more drilling should even be part of a solution, calling it a "gimmick" and "hoax."

Well, now nearly every Democrat, including Obama, supports this "hoax." It's the sort of convenient policy shift that reminds us of . . . well, of every politician who has ever walked the planet.

Such political calculations have been the trademark of Obama. On public finance for his campaign, immigration policy, international trade and retroactive immunity for phone companies, it's been about political expediency.

Obama recently told evangelical preacher Rick Warren that the most difficult decision he's ever made was his opposition to the Iraq (while in the Illinois legislature). Yet, even with his defining issue, Obama has modified his position as polls dictate.

So when we throw the bums out for the sake of change, what will we be changing to? What kind of policies would take the place of the ones wrought by those bums?

Politics as usual.

There's an exquisite irony in the fact that the Democrats' problems are a function of racialism. The only case that was ever made for Senator Obama being an agent of change was that he "doesn't look like the other guys on our currency." But pigment isn't policy and so Republicans have had little trouble pointing out that he's just the next in long line of Northern liberals--Adlai, McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Kerry--who've been ritually rejected by the American people. Democrats are obsessed with an insignificant difference--ethnicity--while ignoring the overwhelming sameness.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 19, 2008 10:01 AM